So What, Who Cares (volume 1, issue 13*) What it takes to recover from bad surprises

Hello! I would love to extend a warm welcome to anyone who's subscribed after reading awesome Two Bossy Dames' Sophie's recommendation. Thank you all for trying me out!

*
I subscribe to Outside magazine, and waiting for me yesterday was the annual "How to survive ridiculously awful situations in the wild" issue, which is basically the editors' excuse to make like Keith Morrison all, "Oooh, that's terrible" when someone recounts being trapped in an avalanche or some other terrible thing that is best avoided by never going outside. But these stories are useful because they outline the psychological framework that separates the resilient from the traumatized.

In 2011, Susannah Breslin reported on the wave of post-traumatic stress disorder that surged among New Orleans' residents in the wake of Hurricane Katrina; among one of her discoveries:

[Whether one develops PTSD] depends on whether or not one dissociates from the traumatic event. If the event is never fully experienced, it fails to be integrated into a "past-tense" narrative, leaving the survivor living in the shadow of a memory-in-limbo -- an experience playing over and over again on an internal JumboTron with no remote control.

Simply being able to tell your story seems to help in recovering from a trauma. The power of narrative also comes up in this examination of how people survive near-death experiences: Those who told themselves positive stories about who they were now ("I'm 'predisastered' now" or "I'm a rescuer, not a victim") were more likely to develop the psychological resilience they needed to thrive for decades. Experts seem to think that you need to confront your trauma before you can move on: In order to write the story, you have to face your antagonist. Says psychiatrist Mike Epstein:

The willingness to face traumas — be they large, small, primitive or fresh — is the key to healing from them. They may never disappear in the way we think they should, but maybe they don’t need to. Trauma is an ineradicable aspect of life. We are human as a result of it, not in spite of it.

There are other proven coping strategies for walking through the recovery period. An Outside magazine piece notes the brain-body connection and explains why engaging labor might be what cures you:

[One e]ffect of a traumatic event is that the amygdala—the part of your brain that controls your emotional responses—is triggered. Whenever something stressful happens, from a stubbed toe to a minor earthquake, your amygdala activates your autonomic and endocrine systems, releasing stress hormones and neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine and glucocorticoids. Normally this is a good thing: those chemicals usually persist in your body for minutes at a time, allowing you to react quickly to harm. But extreme events can leave you permanently primed, with raging stress hormones. High levels of norepinephrine and glucocorticoids can contribute to PTSD and depression.

The question is, how do you unprime your brain? “Work, work, work,” writes Richard Mollica, a professor of psychiatry who runs the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma. “This is the single most important goal of traumatized people throughout the world.” The brain acts like a seesaw: if emotion is too high, you can’t think straight, and vice versa. Working the logical part of the brain—the frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex—takes the pressure off the amygdala. Performing a logical task puts the brakes on your emotions, and the satisfaction from completing those tasks releases dopamine, the neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of motivation and reward.

The basic formula for placing trauma in a past-tense narrative, according to the Outside piece: "Most experts agree that the majority of survivors can live productive and satisfying lives by facing their fears, having fun, laughing whenever possible (a proven stress reducer), and helping others."

So what? Few of us are going to have to worry about what to do when we're cornered by angry monkeys next to a temple, but all of us will have to handle a hardship that we could neither anticipate nor prevent. And we'll have loved ones who do too. Knowing how to recover as healthily as possible is an important life skill.

Who cares? Anyone who wants to be their own best ally, not their own obstacle. And anyone who loves someone who's dealing with the aftereffects of a traumatic event.

*

A discussion I was having about what it means when your teeth fall out in a dream segued -- as so often it does -- into a talk about comics and obscure comics miniseries.

I first learned that dreams about losing your teeth mean a change is afoot from reading Jonathan Vankin's ten-issue series The Witching. The story itself leans a little heavily on the premise that Vertigo fangirls will buy anything that had any character from The Sandman in it, however tenuous the connection, but the covers for each issue were done by Tara MacPherson, whose dreamy, unearthly work is simultaneously delicate and bold -- as if the same qualities that make octopus arms so mesmerizing were captured in muted colors and clear lines. Go check out her work here. It's eye candy for grown-ups.

So what? In an era where comic art gets more attention for being forehead-smackingly wrong and tone-deaf about women, it's important to remember that a lot of women artists are quietly raising the bar and getting it right.

Who cares? Anyone who thinks art comes from -- and is for -- anyone.

*
I hope reading 900 words of SW,WC hasn't traumatized you. If so -- good news! You have the tools to move on. Before you do, please tell your pals to sign up for So What, Who Cares? and tweet me with your thoughts.

As always, thanks for reading.